Method and system for providing order status information using an update status flag

ABSTRACT

A method and system for providing order status information using an update status flag to receive status information pertaining to an order placed by a customer with a merchant. It is determined whether the received status information is new relative to further status information pertaining to the order stored within a status record. The status record is updated to include the received status information if the received status information is new. The updated message indicating the received status information is then composed and sent to the customer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application is a continuation of pending U.S. applicationSer. No. 09/426,573, filed Oct. 25, 1999, which is a continuation ofU.S. application Ser. No. 08/725,635, filed Oct. 8, 1996, now issuedU.S. Pat. No. 6,047,264, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 08/695,095, filed Aug. 8, 1996, now abandoned.

[0002] This application is related to copending patent application Ser.No. ______ entitled “Method and System for Requesting Status Informationfrom a Common Carrier,” filed ______ and patent application Ser. No.______, entitled “Method and System for Providing Order StatusInformation using a Network Address,” filed ______, each commonlyassigned with the present invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] 1. Field of the Invention

[0004] The present invention relates generally to electronic commerceand more particularly to updating customers as to the status of theirorders and order shipments.

[0005] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0006] In the mail order industry, it is common practice to notifycustomers by mail when their orders are backlogged or their shipmentswill be delayed for some reason. The advent of wide area electronicnetworks like the Internet has made it possible for customers to querythe status of their orders and shipments by directly accessing themerchants' and shippers' information systems. For example, both FederalExpress® (FedEx®) and United Parcel Service® (UPS®) have world wide websites on the Internet where customers can track the shipping status oftheir packages by simply inputting the package's tracking number to acomputer form on a web page.

[0007] There is an advantage however, to notifying customers by mailwhen their shipments will be delayed, because the customer is notrequired to take any action to receive this notification—that is, thecustomer does not have to proactively access the Internet or othernetwork, go to the shipper's world wide web site, and obtain and input aparcel tracking number in order to check on the shipping status.

[0008] In U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,778 to Brookes (“Brookes”), a keywordbased profile is used to match information coming into a system with theusers' interests. In Brookes, the user is alerted to the presence of theinformation in the database (perhaps because there is a delivery feeassociated with the information), but the information is not actuallydelivered to the user.

[0009] Also in the related art are several Internet-based electronicmail systems that deliver information to users daily via E-mail based onpersonal profiles. There are, for example, several stock quotationservices that electronically mail a list of a user's personal favoritestock prices each day. Unlike Brookes, such systems do deliver theinformation directly to the user. However, the user is required tosubmit an interest profile to the system in order to receive feedback.

[0010] There is a need in the art, therefore, for a system and methodfor automatically notifying a party of the status of a delivery withoutrequiring submission of a status request or special profile informationfrom the party.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0011] A method and system for providing order status information usingan update status flag is described. According to one aspect of theinvention, status information pertaining to an order placed by acustomer with a merchant is received. It is determined whether thereceived status information is new relative to further statusinformation pertaining to the order stored within a status record. Thestatus record is updated to include the received status information ifthe received status information is new. The updated message indicatingthe received status information is then composed and sent to thecustomer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] The aforementioned advantages of the invention, as well asadditional advantages thereof, will be more fully understood as a resultof a detailed description of the exemplary embodiment when taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

[0013]FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary computer environment forimplementing the system and method of the present invention.

[0014]FIG. 2 is block diagram of components illustrating an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention.

[0015]FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the status requester and itsmethod of operation.

[0016]FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the status receiver and itsmethod of operation.

[0017]FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the electronic mail messengerand its method or operation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT

[0018] The present invention may be implemented as a computer program248 running on a central server host computer shown in FIG. 1, attachedto a wide area network 275 accessible by many potential customersthrough remote terminals 210 using keyboard 240, pointing device 260 andmonitor 280. An exemplary network for implementing the present inventionis the Internet which is accessible by a significant percentage of theworld population, although the network may also be a local area orlimited area accessible network.

[0019] Information about the customers and their respective orders ismaintained in a status database 16 such as the one shown in FIG. 2.Status database 16 may be maintained on server 250 shown in FIG. 1.Individual customer orders may be placed in this database either byorder entry personnel 300 or electronically by order entry systems alsoattached to wide area network 275 of FIG. 1. Status information instatus database 16 may be updated manually by order entry personnel orelectronically by other means such as status receiver 14 shown in FIG.2.

[0020] Periodically via status query 10, status requester 13, sends astatus request to another host computer on wide area network 275, suchas a common carrier shipping service like UPS® or FedEx®. Statusinformation 11 is returned and received by status receiver 14, whichplaces the new status information in status database 16. When statusreceiver 14 updates the status in status database 16, it sets a flag onthe particular database record indicating a change in status.

[0021] Periodically, electronic mail messenger 15 checks status database16, to see if the status of any record has changed, by examining therecords' status flags. If a record has been flagged, then electronicmail messenger 15 composes an electronic mail message 12 based on thenew status information in status database 16. This electronic mailmessage 12 is transmitted to the customer over the wide area network275.

[0022]FIG. 3 illustrates the operation of status requester 13. In anexemplary embodiment, the status requester is continually running aprogram that periodically requests status updates from other hostcomputers on wide area network 275. After waiting 21 for a designatedtime, which for a shipping status update is preferably every six totwenty-four hours, status database 16 is checked 22 to see if there aremore status records. If so, then a status record is selected 23 and astatus request is composed 24. This status request is sent 25 to anotherhost computer on wide area network 275. This requesting processcontinues until each of the status records in status database 16 havebeen checked 22.

[0023]FIG. 4 illustrates the operation of status receiver 14. In theexemplary embodiment, the status receiver is a continually runningprogram that periodically receives status information 11 from anotherhost computer on wide area network 275 based on requests generated bystatus requester 13. Wide area network 275 is continually checked fornew status information 11. If new status information is found availableat 31 then the status information is received 32 and the correspondingstatus record is fetched 33 from status database 16. The information iscompared with that in the status record to determine 34 if the receivedinformation is new. If the received information is new, then the statusrecord is updated 35 in status database 16 and the Updated Status flagis set 36 in the status record.

[0024]FIG. 5 illustrates the operation of electronic mail messenger 15.In an exemplary embodiment, the electronic mail messenger is acontinually running program that periodically checks 41 status database16 to see if any records have an “Updated Status” flag set. If so, theappropriate status record is fetched 42 from status database 16 and anelectronic mail message is composed 43 regarding the new statusinformation. This electronic mail message is then preferably sent 44 tothe recipient over wide area network 275.

[0025] One skilled in the art to which the present invention pertainswill recognize that the various components of the system may communicatebetween themselves in a variety of ways. In an exemplary embodiment,status receiver 14 signals electronic mail messenger 15 via an “UpdatedStatus” flag in the appropriate database records that a new updatemessage should be sent. However, status receiver 14 could directlycommunicate with electronic mail messenger 15 to send a status updatemessage without setting a signaling flag in status database 16 andawaiting discovery of such a flag by the electronic mail messenger.

[0026] One skilled in the art to which the present invention pertainswill further recognize that components of status requester 13 and statusreceiver 14 may be combined into a single module that communicates witha remote host computer in a synchronous fashion. For example, the statusrequester portion of the combined module could send a status request tothe remote host computer and wait for the status information to bereceived before proceeding to submit the next status request to theremote host computer. This type of synchronous operation is quite commonin electronic data interchange applications.

[0027] The present invention may be implemented as a software program ona host computer such as 250 in FIG. 1 within a network 275 such as theInternet. The program may be loaded onto computer 250 from disk 248 or asimilar storage medium.

[0028] A general description of the present invention as well as anexemplary embodiment of the present invention has been set forth above.Those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains willrecognize and be able to practice additional variations to the methodsand system described within the teachings of this invention.Accordingly, all such modifications and additions are deemed to bewithin the scope of the invention, which is to be limited only by theappended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method to provide update information, themethod including: receiving status information pertaining to an orderplaced by a customer with a merchant; determining whether the receivedstatus information is new relative to further status informationpertaining to the order stored within a status record; if the receivedstatus information is new, then updating the status record to includethe received status information; and composing and sending an updatemessage to the customer, the update message indicating the receivedstatus information.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the updating ofthe status record includes setting a flag associated with the statusrecord.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the composing and sending ofthe update message includes performing a check to see if the flagassociated with the status record is set and sending the message if theflag is set.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the composing and sendingof the update message is performed directly responsive to thedetermining that the received status information is new relative tofurther status information pertaining to the order stored within astatus record.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is anelectronic mail message.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving an electronic mail address from the customer when the customerplaces the order, the electronic mail address being associated with thecustomer.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the status information isreceived from an information system of a common carrier.
 8. The methodof claim 1, wherein the status information includes informationregarding the location of the order.
 9. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: requesting the status information pertaining to the orderplaced by the customer from a common carrier information system.
 10. Anelectronic commerce system, comprising: a status receiver to receivestatus information pertaining to an order placed by a customer with amerchant; and an electronic mail messenger coupled with the statusreceiver, to determine whether the received status information is newrelative to further status information pertaining to the order storedwithin a status record, wherein the status record is updated to includethe received status information if the received status information isnew, wherein the electronic mail messenger composes and sends an updatemessage to the customer, the update message indicating the receivedstatus information.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the statusreceiver updates the status record by setting a flag associated with thestatus record.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the electronic mailmessenger composes and sends the updated message responsive todetermining that the received status information is new relative tofurther status information pertaining to the order stored within astatus record.
 13. The system of claim 10, wherein the message is anelectronic mail message.
 14. The system of claim 10, wherein theelectronic mail messenger sends the message using an electronic mailaddress associated with the customer.
 15. The system of claim 10,wherein the status information is received from an information system ofa common carrier.
 16. The system of claim 10, wherein the statusinformation includes information regarding a location of the order. 17.The system of claim 10, further including: a status requester, coupledto the status receiver and the electronic mail messenger, to request thestatus information pertaining to the order placed by the customer from acommon carrier information system.
 18. A machine-readable medium haveexecutable instructions to cause a machine to perform a method toprovide update information, the method including: receiving statusinformation pertaining to an order placed by a customer with a merchant;determining whether the received status information is new relative tofurther status information pertaining to the order stored within astatus record; if the received status information is new, then updatingthe status record to include the received status information; andcomposing and sending an update message to the customer, the updatemessage indicating the received status information.
 19. Themachine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the updating of the statusrecord includes setting a flag associated with the status record. 20.The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the composing andsending of the update message includes performing a check to see if theflag associated with the status record is set and sending the message ifthe flag is set.
 21. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, whereinthe composing and sending of the update message is performed directlyresponsive to the determining that the received status information isnew relative to further status information pertaining to the orderstored within a status record.
 22. The machine-readable medium of claim18, wherein the message is an electronic mail message.
 23. Themachine-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising: receiving anelectronic mail address from the customer when the customer places theorder, the electronic mail address being associated with the customer.24. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the statusinformation is received from an information system of a common carrier.25. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the statusinformation includes information regarding a location of the order. 26.The machine-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising: requestingthe status information pertaining to the order placed by the customerfrom a common carrier information system.
 27. An electronic commercesystem, comprising: a receiving means for receiving status informationpertaining to an order placed by a customer with a merchant; and amessaging means for determining whether the received status informationis new relative to further status information pertaining to the orderstored within a status record, wherein the status record is updated toinclude the received status information if the received statusinformation is new, wherein the messaging means composes and sends anupdate message to the customer, the update message indicating thereceived status information.
 28. The system of claim 27, wherein thereceiving means is for updating the status record by setting a flagassociated with the status record.
 29. The system of claim 28, whereinthe messaging means is for composing and sending the updated messageresponsive to determining that the received status information is newrelative to further status information pertaining to the order storedwithin a status record.
 30. The system of claim 27, wherein the messageis an electronic mail message.
 31. The system of claim 27, wherein themessaging means is for sending the message using an electronic mailaddress associated with the customer.
 32. The system of claim 27,wherein the status information is received from an information system ofa common carrier.
 33. The system of claim 27, wherein the statusinformation includes information regarding a location of the order. 34.The system of claim 27, further including: a requesting means, coupledto the receiving means and the messaging means, for requesting thestatus information pertaining to the order placed by the customer from acommon carrier information system.